Economic sentiment improved in Cyprus in August 2023, due to confidence gains in services, and to a lesser degree, in retail trade, according to the latest Business and Consumers survey by the University of Cyprus’ Economics Research Centre.
The report said that, in August 2023, economic sentiment in Cyprus improved, as the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI-CypERC) increased by 3.4 points compared with July 2023. The increase in the ESI-CypERC was driven by confidence gains in services, and to a lesser degree, in retail trade, it adds.
The Services Confidence Indicator ‘increased as a result of firms’ improved views on their past and future turnover’, it said, while the increase in the Retail Trade Confidence Indicator was mainly driven by upward revisions in sales expectations.
‘The drop in the Construction Confidence Indicator resulted mostly from firms’ negative views on the level of order books’, the survey notes.
The Industry Confidence Indicator decreased, it adds, ‘as firms assessed the current levels of their order books more negatively and revised their production expectations downwards’.
The Consumer Confidence Indicator deteriorated for the second month in a row, the survey said, noting that, in August, consumers ‘expressed more pessimistic views on the future economic conditions in Cyprus; moreover, consumers’ intentions to make major purchases in the near future weakened.’
It adds that, in August, economic uncertainty in Cyprus decreased largely because of lower uncertainty among firms in the services sector and among consumers.
Source: Cyprus News Agency